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" Hank continued to look confused. “So, what’s she like otherwise? Is she a nice person?”
Duane shrugged. “Not particularly. She’s businesslike, to the point. Cletus calls her efficient.”
“Duane and Cletus would know.” I indicated to my brother with my chin. “She’ll talk to them, but she still doesn’t speak to me.”
“So, Miss Too Pretty ignoring you has your boxers in a bunch?” Hank looked like he was stifling a laugh.
“Like I said, it has nothing to do with her looks. And she can keep on ignoring me. I don’t care about that. But you’d be irritated too if someone you didn’t know told you your face was distorted.”
“She didn’t say your face was distorted, dummy.” Duane rolled his eyes.
I pointed at my brother. “She said yourface was perfectly symmetrical and myface was wonky. And that—plus I’m an idiot—is how she could tell us apart.”
Hank barked a laugh.
I glowered at my friend. “And I’m the one who needed to apologize?”
“Now see, I don’t think you needed to apologize for mistaking her for a stripper. I think you needed to apologize for suggesting she take off her clothes. There’s the difference.” Duane nodded at his own words.
“Technically, I didn’t suggest she take off her clothes. I suggested she keep them on.”
Hank rubbed his chin. “You shouldn’t have made any reference to her clothes at all, especially since you’ll be working with her for the foreseeable future. That’s just unprofessional.”
“Unprofessional?” I couldn’t believe the words out of my friend’s mouth, especially considering his practice of sending strippers to welcome me home was the cause of this mess in the first place.
“Don’t look at me like that. I work in a strip club; you work in an auto shop. Of course I have to talk to my employees about their costumes and such.” Hank gave me a pointed look as he brought the beer bottle to his mouth and said before taking a sip, “The only stripping you should be discussing with this woman is salvaging for car parts. "
― Penny Reid , Beard in Mind (Winston Brothers, #4)
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" People need to be polished, to be stroked, touched,” her tone was abstract, “and when they’re not polished, their colors fade. They fade, they change, warp, become something different. "
― Penny Reid , Beard in Mind (Winston Brothers, #4)
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" All people are broken, Shelly. No one is perfect. Some seek help. Some don’t. But no one is ever fixed by another person. We can only work on ourselves. We are—using your analogy—our own refrigerators, no one else’s.” Dr. West paused, like she was giving me time to absorb and consider her words. “You can be supportive of Beau, hold the tools for him while he works on his refrigerator, remind him to take a break, show interest in his struggles. You can do things, gestures of kindness that show him he’s appreciated, that you care about him. But no one can fix Beau’s refrigerator except Beau. "
― Penny Reid , Beard in Mind (Winston Brothers, #4)
